by Greg Dragon
“Excuse me, Sha’an.” A Felitian soldier spoke to her, using the formal title for royalty to address her. “May I sit with you?”
She nodded at him and moved her hand to her knee so he could see the wedding band on her forefinger.
“Where would a beautiful lady such as yourself be traveling tonight?” he began, but his eyes betrayed his disappointment when he noticed the ring.
“Off to a meeting with friends, dear,” she replied.
“Wonderful!” he exclaimed, a bit too loudly, and then he tipped his hat and sat back down to watch the scenery as they flew up into the countryside.
There were about ten people on the transport, and the cool air brought the scent of perfume to Marian’s nose. She glanced at the men and women sitting peacefully in their seats. It’s a bit like paradise when all you have to do is turn a blind eye to the dictator that robs your freedoms and tortures his enemies, eh Tyhera? she thought as she watched them. When I kill Palus Felitious, this lull that you find yourselves in will be over. Pampered rich boys playing at soldier like my admirer here will be running in the streets, crying.
She sat back smiling and played with her ring, trying in vain to keep the sweet memories of her time with Rafian at bay.
“You are my hatch kitten,” he had said to her when he proposed. She thought on the many kisses he had given her beneath the moon of Talula, and the skirmishes he had run off to, leaving her worried and afraid. It was an exciting and romantic life for the two of them, before he’d gotten his memory back. Oh how she missed it more than anything else.
“You know, Sha’an, you look very familiar to me, and I am thinking that you are someone important,” the soldier said after some time had passed. Marian hadn’t seen him staring at her while she was in deep thought, but he was smitten and couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Oh yeah?” she replied. “What makes you say that?”
“I wish I could put my finger on it, but I know your face. Are you married to one of our lords in Veece? Or, wait – you’re a member of the cabinet, aren’t you?”
Marian didn’t know what to think, but she wanted him to stop looking at her and mind his own business. She caressed the knife strapped across her upper thigh and stared back at him, trying to see if he would figure it out. Raise an alarm and I will gut you right here, she thought as she looked on, waiting for him to make the next move.
“Pah! Forget it, I have a terrible memory,” he said, and went back to looking out his window to take his mind off her.
Marian threw a crystal over the side into the high grass as her admirer continued to look out at the rolling hills of the Tyheran landscape. She waited a few more miles before taking another one out, then looked to see if anyone was watching before throwing it on the floor and vanishing into the light that it produced.
She was teleported instantly to the location of the first crystal, which was now too far away from the transport for anyone to see. She wondered what her young admirer would say about her disappearance. It would have looked as if she never existed, and since Luca knew nothing of the Phaser’s abilities, the soldier would probably think that his mind was playing tricks on him.
She proceeded to walk towards the area of the mountain that she was told the meeting with Blu would be held. It was the entrance to a cave, and as she walked into the darkness she suddenly heard a growl. She crouched into a fencer’s stance and drew her knife from the sheath on her leg. A large cat bounded towards her with cruel intent and she brought up the knife instinctively, hoping to ward it off.
“Shah, G’toh!” A rough voice spoke, and the animal stopped and sat down, licking a massive paw.
Marian looked around to find the voice and a large Deijen walked out, dressed in formal resistance garb and brandishing a long, brown rifle.
“She wouldn’t have bitten you, Lady Raf. She just likes to play. Don’t you, Nemesis? You just wanted to play with the pretty lady, right?” he asked the cat, who merely stared up at him with large yellow eyes.
The large cat growled and then licked its chops and Marian—seeing that it was a female—walked up to her and patted her on the top of her head.
“Well met, Blu,” she finally said after spending some time to pet and befriend the large cat.
“Long time, Lady Raf,” the Deijin said as he moved his seven-foot frame to stand in front of the tiny woman. He rested his hand her shoulder and Marian moved in and hugged him affectionately, her head barely reaching his chest.
“Where’s the monk?” Blu asked.
“He is unable to be here,” Marian said, looking up at him to read his eyes.
The Deijen looked disappointed. “I was hoping he was with you. We have been holding on for him for many years now. This resistance that he helped to become great has suffered some setbacks, and if anybody could get us back on track, it would be Rafian. Where is my old friend, Lady Raf?”
“I can explain later but he isn’t in this galaxy—”
“That makes no sense,” Blu said, cutting her off. He grabbed her shoulders to hold her in front of him, looking into her twinkling pupils for any trace of mischief.
“It’s the truth, Blu. Do you remember how special Rafian was with the things he was able to do in fights?” she said.
“Who could forget? We still talk about him; those of us that were there. We wish he would come back to us to help. We could use his special talents,” Blu said.
“The skills he has are not of this world, Blu,” she said.
“What do you mean, another world?” the large, cobalt, Deijen asked, his brows knitted into a frown as he held her.
“Another world outside of Luca, another system with its own planets … do you understand?” she asked, and the Deijen nodded, despite the reservations reflected in his long, plain face. “Rafian took me away with him the day he disappeared. He is from a world that has the technology to move across galaxies. But he had to return because his people were dying.”
Blu looked at her intently as he tried to process everything she was telling him. “But WE are his people, Marian. We are the ones he bled with, trained with, and fought with. We are brothers. I watched him grow from a grunt all the way up to being our leader. You mean to tell me that this entire time, Rafian, our Rafian, was an off-worlder?”
“Yes. But this is why he was special, Blu. It is why his eyes lacked the spark that all other Tyherans have, and it is why he left,” Marian said.
Blu chuckled and moved his hands from her shoulders to the small of her back. He said, “Come inside, Marian; this is a lot to take in. We were curious how you showed up so suddenly without Rafian, and we worried that you had killed him and returned to your—”
“You all dishonor me with such a vicious rumor, Blu,” Marian said sadly as she took the cat’s leash and followed Blu inside the cave. The Deijin pulled open a large hatch and they descended a flight of stairs. They did not go a long way before the stairs opened up into the living area of a large house, and Marian’s thoughts were interrupted by her surprise at how warm and welcoming the house felt.
“I say ‘we,’ but I have never doubted you, Marian,” Blu said to her as he led her to a couch and poured her a glass of spiced, sour berry ale. “When Rafian brought you in, he told us that you were his heart. From that day on, from what I remember, you outfitted us, healed us, and bled with us as a sister. No-one can question your sacrifice for our fight, especially now with you rallying us together to help the people on Talula. But men are jealous and angry, Lady Raf. You left us in our most desperate hour, and it caused a lot of speculation and anger.”
Marian wished Rafian were there to hear Blu’s story so that he could realize what he had caused with his sudden departure from Luca. She had always warned him that his rash decision to jump back to Anstractor would mean dire circumstances for Tyhera, but he had been too concerned with the fate of his own people. She couldn’t blame him for the choice he made, but she didn’t like the fact that she was the one to take the b
runt of the blame from the confused Deijin.
“Well, I am here to help set things right,” Marian said. She sipped on the ale and grimaced as the sour after-taste did a number on her taste buds. The thick liquid reminded her of bitter aloe mixed with the greenest limes. She made a face when she swallowed it, and the Deijen—who stood watching her, as if he expected the reaction—chuckled at her as he pointed playfully to the bottle.
“Happy to hear it,” Blu said suddenly. He clapped three times, which woke up a service android who Marian noticed for the first time when it stood up gracefully and walked towards one of the walls while swaying its hips.
“That’s a bit of a sexy walk for an android, Blu,” she said as she watched the android begin its work. “I know I’ve been gone for a while, but I don’t recall androids having the ability to move like us.”
“Oh, I modified Rita to walk like that,” the giant man said to her. Deijins didn’t really smile, but she could feel the pride that he had in his work beaming from his stoic face.
“I’m going to hope that is all the modification you did to that thing,” Marian said and forced another sip from her glass.
The android touched the wall and it shimmered and opened up to another room. Marian could see that a number of men and women were seated around a table in there. She counted seven men and three women, some hailing from other planets and the majority being natives of Tyhera.
Blu announced to them: “Ladies and gentlemen of the resistance. Warriors, survivors, and future kings of Luca. Please welcome a friend of the resistance, the wife of my eternal brother, Rafian.”
The people stood up and began to cheer as she walked into their midst to shake hands and hug the familiar faces that were there. It was a warm welcome, one she was not expecting, especially after what Blu had told her, but she took it in and gave them her warmest smile before taking a seat at what could be considered to be the head of the table.
Marian took in the numerous faces and tried to see if she knew any of them. She recognized a few faces but she wondered if they remembered her. If any of them were to become suspicious, they would no doubt question her loyalties now, even as she stood: a proud Phaser, wife to the most wanted man in her galaxy.
She began to second-guess every move she made while sitting amongst their number. When a declaration of action was made and they all cheered in agreement, she tried to see herself from the outside – did she really look like she was one with them, or did she seem to be acting? After a while, she began to clam up, her paranoia getting the better of her.
“How many of you know who I am, truly?” she asked, looking around at her comrades who now regarded her with some surprise.
“They know who you are, Marian. What’s the problem?” Blu asked, standing with her to urge her to take a seat.
“I want to make sure,” Marian said. “We are about to commit our lives and many others to some serious actions tonight, and in meetings to come. When the blood begins to flow, and the Felitians’ grip begins to tighten on the innocents for our crimes, I don’t want any of you to question my right to being here.”
“Why would we do that?” a stern, dark blue Daltak remarked. He stood up suddenly and stared at her with what seemed like new interest, and the flap that acted as a nose lifted slowly before settling like the blast doors on a starship.
“I am Felitian-born and I have blood on my hands. Not just Fel blood, but—but Veece city blood as well,” she said, her words so fast and strung together that she had no chance to bite them back from being uttered.
The group looked at one another, nodding, and the Daltak shifted his stance. She could see the hilts of two poison darts on his leg and one of his hands had moved to hover near them. Blu stood up, as well, with a pistol in his right hand, ready to act if the Daltak moved to attack Marian.
“Seriously, woman? This is why you interrupt our meeting, to tell us about your past as if you are some sort of special fish in this boiling cesspool we call life?” another Daltak remarked. Marian looked over at this new voice and realized it was one of the faces she recognized. “We all have pasts, some more bloody than yours could ever be,” he continued, letting the words linger as he flicked his dark eyes up at the other Daltak who blinked, flashed him a return glance, and sat down.
“Thank you,” Marian said, and the kinder Daltak grunted and went back to his wine.
“So, what about Talula?” a grizzled, dark-skinned man asked, acting as if the interruption hadn’t occurred. The rest of the group looked like they were deep in thought, but several of them nodded at this question.
“We need a distraction if we’re going to mount that rescue,” one of the three women in attendance said.
“Rescue? Are you out of your mind?” the aggressive Daltak from before remarked as he looked around to make sure he wasn’t the only one who thought it to be a bad idea. “The Fels will have android guards posted all around that facility. You have to understand, they think that the people they have inside of there are the last of our organization! If there are more of us out here, they want to be sure we know that our comrades are in trouble.”
“So it’s some sort of honeypot for suckers, then,” Blu remarked, stroking his chin and looking at Marian.
“I know many of you don’t know me, or know what it is I can do,” she told them. “But if you can rescue the settlers on that moon, my friend and I can provide the distraction needed to make sure the Fels won’t react to you.”
The dark-skinned man from before smiled where everyone else had thin lines where their mouths should have been. He was the only one not drinking, and she could tell that despite his kind eyes, he was the most dangerous member there. He was armed to the teeth, but in a way that only a Phaser with her training could see. His weapons were strategically hidden, and his eyes betrayed the fact that he knew she was aware of them.
The unfriendly Daltak made to talk and the dark-skinned man waved his hand for him to remain silent.
“Shut up, Corea, you’ve more than made us aware of your distrust of this beautiful woman,” he said. “Like brother Blu here, however, I know who she is, though she wouldn’t remember most of us – old Rafian made sure of that,” he said and snorted out a laugh. “Sha’an, they call me Saiko, and I was a close friend of your husband’s, back in the golden days of Cally,” he said, his voice trailing off sadly as he made mention of the city.
“Pleasure to meet you, Saiko,” Marian replied. “You say that you were a close friend of my husband’s. You said it in the past tense, as if you two of you are no longer friends or—I don’t know. Do you all assume that Rafian is dead? Is that what you all think?” she asked, looking around.
“Where is Rafian, then?” the nicer Daltak asked, and Marian blinked quickly, trying to figure out what to say.
“The truth is, warriors, Rafian was never from here. He isn’t a born Lucan like the rest of us, even though his amnesia made him fight for us the way one fights for his own homeland. Rafian is from another galaxy, a warrior from a war torn universe who was sent here to be taken away from the ones he loved. He … he got his memory back on the day that he left you, and has gone back home, where he still fights for his own people,” she said.
“Sounds like a load of Buraa shite to me,” the older red-headed woman said. They were the first words she had spoken that night, and Marian looked at her and sized her up.
“You question my honor, cruta?” Marian asked, and the woman flinched when she saw the cruel intent reflected in Marian’s eyes. “Why would I make any of this up after Blu has more than vouched for me? The things Rafian can do is beyond even my understanding. His powers are—”
“We know, we know, Marian,” Saiko said. “Calm yourself, girl, we are all friends here. Persena was merely suggesting that you were making a joke. Most of us know about Mera Ku monks and the strange magic they have through their meditation. I’ve personally seen your husband get burned by a Felitian rocket trail, then walk away from it after kneeli
ng into that meditation thing he does.” His eyes took on the look of a child witnessing a magic trick for the first time. “I knew he was special, but at least with what you’re saying now, it was some sort of alien thing, not just Mera Ku magic.”
Saiko seemed to calm himself as he spoke, and then he sighed. “Whew, many of us were thinking that he was … I don’t know—”
“What?” Marian pressed.
“We thought the Fels got him. Hell, we thought he was rotting away in one of their floating prisons, or worse. So old Raf’s alive, you say? I’ll be damned if that isn’t some good news. The next time you see that old boy, tell him One-Shot Saiko was asking about him. He could always come back and share a mug with me, Orion, and old Blu.”
Marian smiled and mouthed a ‘thank you’ without saying it out loud.
“Listen,” she said, as she composed herself and began again. “I have a friend that I brought back from Rafian’s galaxy. She’s a warrior like the rest of you, but a part of the group that I told Blu about. We have a special skillset that allows us to get in and out of formidable places rather easily. Like Rafian’s disappearance, it is a thing I cannot explain in too much detail but trust me, we can stir up enough noise in Veece to bring every Felitian in the galaxy running to protect their precious Emperor.”
“Really?” the unfriendly Daltak asked, his demeanor changing to one of even more hostility as he regarded Marian. “Show me proof, NOW, or I—”
“Or you fire that old, Felitian-issue pistol at me that you have resting on your knee beneath the table?” Marian asked, her eyes dangerous now as she looked at him with hostility of her own. “Fine. I will show you all if it means we can move ahead. But don’t blame me if I frighten you with our methods!”
With the utterance of her last word, Marian dropped a crystal and flipped out the tiny knife she held hidden in her palm. She slammed it into the Dalak’s hand that rested on the table, and then disappeared, appearing at the entrance where she had dropped another crystal.
